Northeastern U. reinstates Students for Justice in Palestine chapter

(JTA) — Northeastern University has provisionally reinstated the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter on campus.

The SJP chapter will remain on probation through January 2015, according to a notification letter from Dr. Laura A. Wankel, the university’s vice president for student affairs.

Students for Justice in Palestine was suspended from campus on March 7 for at least a year, and its current executive board members were barred from serving on future boards in the organization, after the group distributed mock eviction notices in student residences to protest Israeli policies against the Palestinians.

Wankel’s letter said that she found the original decision to suspend the chapter “appropriate.”

Conditions for the chapter’s provisional reinstatement include: electing a new executive board, creating new organizational and leadership development plans, and developing a proposed program plan for the fall semester.

“Of course, we disagree with the administration’s statement that the earlier decision to suspend SJP was appropriate and we believe this is largely a face-saving statement,” SJP leader Tori Porell said in a statement emailed Wednesday. “SJP is happy to work cooperatively with Associate Dean Bob Jose, one of the conditions the university is imposing – and, frankly, we were insisting upon – to plan our upcoming programs addressing important social justice issues.”